Smart Load Balancing™ And Failover; Link Aggregation (802.3Ad); Generic Trunking (Fec/Gec)/802.3Ad-Draft Static - Dell Broadcom NetXtreme Family of Adapters User Manual

Configuring Teaming: Broadcom NetXtreme II Network Adapter User Guide
Smart Load Balancing™ and Failover
Smart Load Balancing™ and Failover is the Broadcom implementation of load balancing based on IP flow. This feature
supports balancing IP traffic across multiple adapters (team members) in a bidirectional manner. In this type of team, all
adapters in the team have separate MAC addresses. This type of team provides automatic fault detection and dynamic failover
to other team member or to a hot standby member. This is done independently of Layer 3 protocol (IP, IPX, NetBEUI);
rather, it works with existing Layer 2 and 3 switches. No switch configuration (such as trunk, link aggregation) is necessary
for this type of team to work.
NOTES:
If you do not enable LiveLink™ when configuring SLB teams, disabling Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) or enabling
Port Fast at the switch or port is recommended. This minimizes the downtime due to spanning tree loop
determination when failing over. LiveLink mitigates such issues.
TCP/IP is fully balanced and IPX balances only on the transmit side of the team; other protocols are limited to
the primary adapter.
If a team member is linked at a higher speed than another, most of the traffic is handled by the adapter with the
higher speed rate.

Link Aggregation (802.3ad)

This mode supports link aggregation and conforms to the IEEE 802.3ad (LACP) specification. Configuration software allows
you to dynamically configure which adapters you want to participate in a given team. If the link partner is not correctly
configured for 802.3ad link configuration, errors are detected and noted. With this mode, all adapters in the team are
configured to receive packets for the same MAC address. The outbound load-balancing scheme is determined by our BASP
driver. The team link partner determines the load-balancing scheme for inbound packets. In this mode, at least one of the
link partners must be in active mode.
NOTE: Link Aggregation team type is not supported for TOE teaming.

Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static

The Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static type of team is very similar to the Link Aggregation (802.3ad) type of
team in that all adapters in the team are configured to receive packets for the same MAC address. The Generic Trunking
(FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static) type of team, however, does not provide LACP or marker protocol support. This type of team
supports a variety of environments in which the adapter link partners are statically configured to support a proprietary
trunking mechanism. For instance, this type of team could be used to support Lucent's OpenTrunk or Cisco's Fast
EtherChannel (FEC). Basically, this type of team is a light version of the Link Aggregation (802.3ad) type of team. This
approach is much simpler, in that there is not a formalized link aggregation control protocol (LACP). As with the other types of
teams, the creation of teams and the allocation of physical adapters to various teams is done statically through user
configuration software.
The Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC/802.3ad-Draft Static) type of team supports load balancing and failover for both outbound
and inbound traffic.
NOTE: Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC/802.3ad-Draft Static) team type is not supported for TOE teaming.
SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable)
The SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable) type of team is identical to the Smart Load Balancing and Failover type of team, with the
following exception—when the standby member is active, if a primary member comes back on line, the team continues using
the standby member, rather than switching back to the primary member.
All primary interfaces in a team participate in load-balancing operations by sending and receiving a portion of the total traffic.
Standby interfaces take over in the event that all primary interfaces have lost their links.
Failover teaming provides redundant adapter operation (fault tolerance) in the event that a network connection fails. If the
primary adapter in a team is disconnected because of failure of the adapter, cable, or switch port, the secondary team
member becomes active, redirecting both inbound and outbound traffic originally assigned to the primary adapter. Sessions
will be maintained, causing no impact to the user.
Limitations of Smart Load Balancing and Failover/SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable) Types
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